Hike to Chitlang And Chandragiri 2017

Hike to Chitlang

Date of Hike: 19^th -20^th August 2017.
Route: Kathmandu -> Thankot -> Naubise -> Palung -> Chitlang ->Chandragiri ->Thankot
Co-ordinator: Kushma Thapa
Participants: AmbikaM, BigyanS, DijupT, KarishmaP, KumarD, KushmaT, SanjeevS, SarojK, SheprataS, ShreeKrishnaG, ShreyaS, SujanS, SurajR

Report by: Kushma Thapa, Saroj Khadayat, Shree Krishna Gurung, Sujan Sauden

“Recalling Chitlang Hike by Kushma Thapa”

Departure time: Stated 6am, Actual 7am.

Date of Hike: 19^th -20^th August, 2017.

No matter how much of pre-planning you do, you are bound to face obstacles you couldn’t have imagined. Our hike to Chitlang was also a gift box that unwrapped unexpected obstacles.

On the first day, we ate our breakfast at Naubise, and took the route to Daman from the Naubisejunction. It was the first time taking this route for some of us. We stopped at a deserted house for a short nature break. On the route, we discussed few terms: 2005, two types of brake: fuel and motor. I am sure these terms don’t make sense to the readers but it’s just a flashback to the memory lane for the hikers. At around 2pm we stopped somewhere around Palung/Thaha municipality and started our hike. Our destination was around 7km away. The biggest joke of the day that happened was when Sujan said (or so we heard): “How much can we walk in 7km?” (Hami 7km ma kati hidna sakcham ni didi?). Since our route was no hiking trail but vehicle trail we were bored. In addition, the road trail was also very skewed. Hence, we decided to take a shortcut and walked catawampus across the maize/brinjal fields. It was very much fun to walk through the muddy field trails while constantly checking for leech attack. Finally, we made back to the road trail, caught a place with big stones placed, where we sat for short snack time. From there on it was all walking until we reached a homestay where we ate our brunch. The non-vegetarians loved the piro choila and even packed 3 plates for the night. From here on, we explored Chitlang as much as we could, again taking the maize field trail so we could explore more of “the Chitlang basti”. On our way, Dijup Dai and Bigyan gave a visit to the yak cheese factory. If anyone is interested, the price of 1kg yak cheese is Rs 3000. Unfortunately, the price was very expensive for us and so we bought none.

Finally, we made it to Chitlang organic resort. We rested for a few minutes, changed and gathered to the main area of the resort. The resort was nothing like a resort: Flies, dirty room walls, dirty sheets, and unsatisfying customer service are some ways I like to review the resort. After a few moments, it started to rain, and we got a beautiful view of a rainbow. Rainbow, pear farming and thick green forest in the background and our Shahrukh khan pose for a picture is a memory I’ll keep. Soon we all settled for snacks. We danced, we sang, we ate, we played games and we also completed our punishments, which was part of losing in the game. Whoever lost in the game had to perform squats or pushup or plank for a specified amount of time or number. After eating our dinner, we all hummed along while Saroj and Sujan performed live for us. This went on until late evening. When the night came to end, it became difficult to sleep in a room with dirty walls, dirty bed sheets, and insects accompanying.

Next morning, we took our breakfast at around 8am, packed our bags and left the resort at around 9:30ish. 20 minutes after walking a not so straight yet not steep road, the uphill route began. The route was filled with leeches and that was the scariest part for me. After around 1 hour or so of climbing, we reached right below Chandragiri hill. There we ate our lunch and rested for about an hour. We decided to climb the Chandragiri hill instead of taking the down road to Thankot from there. As we were walking to our destination, Chandragiri, it started raining. Most of us hid under our umbrella, but Bigyan and Dijup dai took shelter under their special plastic raincoat. Since it was raining, the view from the top was all white and nothing more was visible. So, we concluded we cannot get a view that made King Prithvi Narayan Shah desire to take over Kathmandu valley, without paying Rs750 for the cable car. Hungry hikers that we were, we ate another quick lunch at Chandragiri. Luckily due to protest by visitors for costly food price, the management team of Chandragiri had made the food price reasonable.

After taking a few selfies, group pictures, and wandering around, we started walking down to our destination: Thankot. We had planned to descend to Kritipur but we were informed the road is very steep and slippery due to rain so we decided to take vehicle route so we could avoid slippery and leech-y shortcuts. At one point, we collected gravel stones to make way as the road was very muddy.

Up until now, leech had been the scary part; so, enters another scary part of the hike (at least it was scary to me). At first, I ignored what was in front of me like the roots of trees, pink and widespread. It took me a few seconds to realize the whole width of the road was smothered by big thick pink legions of earthworm. We covered leech, we covered earthworm, now let’s come to another interesting gift our hike unwrapped for us as we almost reached Thankot. We were probably 20 minutes away from the township of Thankot when we came across a fresh landslide. There was just no way we could cross the landslide. There was little panic starting on most of our heads already. Luckily there we 3 locals who were also travelling who told us there are other routes through the thick jungle. The first shortcut was a dead end so our effort of climbing down, with the help of plant/bush/tree roots was in vain.

Crossing the myriad of earthworm again, we came to the entry point of another shortcut. We grouped the team so all the ladies were in between. The road, rarely used and very slippery, was the final gift we unwrapped. Some of us made through the whole route on four legs. Some of us had to take help from more than one person to make through some slippery turns. Some of us trusted on our two legs and some of us trusted our two legs to support our self as well the other person. As we advanced, the route progressed even more deeply into the jungle. Throughout this journey, our motivation was “aayo aayo road aayo”, which never came of course until the end. In the middle of the journey, Shree Krishna informed us that the road ahead is slippery so it’s better if you climb down seated on the muddy route. On that note Sanjeev Dai’s reply was “basera aye ni huncha! Uthekai kaile thyo ra?” i.e. Climb down sitting?! When had I even been standing? Unsure where the route led us, unsure what was to come ahead, with no food and no water ( Dijup dai secretly had water he kept for an emergency case of someone fainting or worse) we kept moving forward, at times talking of the possibility of coming across a tiger. Finally, finally, we met the vehicle route. The happiness was too real and too treasured. 30 minutes of walking, we found Ram dai and our office shuttle. Everyone settled in and we started recalling the day.

“Recalling Chitlang Hike by Saroj Khadayat”

August-19 2017, we were all set for a hike to Chitlang. Chitlang is located at the southwest of Kathmandu valley in the Mahabharat mountain range. Fifteen signed up for the hike out of which fourteen people showed up. Office vehicle was available for driving us to the starting point of our hike which was Satghumti. On the way to Satghumti we got stuck in jam for about ½ an hour. The traffic jam made us eat bread and jam since most of had not had our breakfast in the morning and everyone was hungry. Dijup dai’s past hiking experience talks made the drive more fun. After about 4 hours’ drive, we finally reached the starting point of our hike (satghumti). The excitement level was too high for me since it was my first hike with VITians. Per the weather forecast, there were chances of heavy rainfall so we were all well prepared for it with raincoats and umbrellas. The day seemed perfect for the hiking- cool breeze, green hills, clear landscapes kept excitement all along. Those songs on Dijup dai’s speaker made the hike more wonderful. His old collection playing while walking down the desire line of paddy (so-called shortcuts) gave that retro feeling.

“First Hike from New Office: Shree Krishna Gurung”

Just 2 weeks of joining Verscend, I got the opportunity of enjoying my first ever office Hike. I was not very sure if my name would be in the hiker's list. I also had no idea how many hikers will be listed or any more detail nevertheless, I was hoping for the best. This hike gave me the opportunity to bond with my Verscend Colleagues. I also enjoyed leading the way through the deep forest trail. Although, Dijup dai was constantly asking us to keep on moving, at times the forest was so deep that I waited for other hikers just in case we encountered a wild animal and we could outnumber the animal/animal gang. Because a lone wolf dies but the pack survives as quoted by Sansa Stark in GOT season 7 episode 7. Thank you so much to all the hikers for making my first hike so memorable.

“Long awaited chance to be part of office Hike: Sujan Sauden”

Regardless of showing interest in many other hikes, this was the first time I got the opportunity to be a part of the hike. The whole experience has been beautifully expressed by other hikers so I am not going to dive much into the hike details. The only bitter experience was the customer service. Unfortunately, I had left my slippers at home so I requested the resort manager many times to provide me a pair of slippers but unfortunately, they turned cold shoulders to my request. I don’t want to say anything more, overall it was nice, fun and everything